House Mirror Image
by MrData
Summary: This short story takes place after the episode where House shoots a corpse in the head to see if bullets can go in the MRI scanner.


House - Mirror image.

Colin was feeling good. He'd dropped his daughter off at school and went jogging with his wife, Maria. They'd just started the third circuit of the park when Colin's left leg gave way under him, causing him to drop like a stone onto the grass.

"Colin!" screamed Marisa, running to his side.

"My leg!" cried Colin, holding his shin.

Maria quickly pulled his running shoe off, exposing very a pale foot. His entire leg was turning ghostly white, apart from the top of his thigh, where a bulging blood clot could be seen just under the skin.

"Lie still." Maria told him. "I'll get help."

She flipped open her mobile phone and called the paramedics.

Colin awoke later in a hospital bed. Maria and his daughter, Penny, was by his side. There were two doctors talking by the door, the older of the two leaning on a walking stick. 

"Why have you asked me to look at this patient?" The older doctor was saying.

"I'd just like your opinion, that's all."

"Ah, you mean I've got a bad leg as well, so I can heal this man." replied the older man.

When they saw he was awake, they walked and hobbled to the bed.

"I'm doctor Wilson, and this is doctor House." Said the younger man.

The dishevelled older doctor said nothing and read Colin's notes to himself.

"Colin White, Vietnam veteran. Age 56." Read doctor Wilson over House's shoulder.

"You were in Vietnam?" doctor House asked Colin.

"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it." replied Colin.

House smiled. "Oh, yes. As a great man once said, 'Don't mention the war, Cybil!'"

Everyone turned to stare at doctor House.

House shrugged. "Maybe you had to be there."

"I don't like you, doctor House." Snapped Penny. Maria grabs her hand and drags her from the room, saying "Let the doctors do their job."

House turns to Wilson "Hmmm. Nice girl. Maybe you should ask her out."

"She's a bit young for me." laughed Wilson.

"A bit young?" House smiled again. "Oh, I see. Too young to earn money so you can go Dutch, right? Mind you, with a name like Penny..."

After examining Colin, they head back to House's office. They are joined by two more doctors: Cuddy and Foreman.

"OK, so what's the plan of attack?" said House when they were all comfortably seated.

Everyone turns to stare at House.

"What, you want to surrender already? Retreat back to your simple little patients who are easy to treat?"

Everyone groaned at the overdose of military jokes.

"Can I ask why I'm here?" Asked Foreman. "This case has nothing to do with his head."

"Doesn't it?" said House, looking puzzled. "Hmmm. Maybe I just wanted you to be here as the token minority. Maybe he has a problem with serving in Vietnam that caused his problems."

"Are you talking about the three bullets in his thigh?" asked Wilson.

"We can't move those." said Cuddy. "He wants to keep them in his leg as a reminder of what he went through. That's not going to make it easy to remove the dead tissue though."

"Well, the bullets rule out an MRI." said House. "Don't want to make that mistake again. Better do an ultrasound on his thigh and see what that picks up. Better do the blood work too, to make it look like we're doing something important."

A little later the blood tests came back. The results did not tell them much.

"Are the bullets restricting blood flow to the lower leg?" Asked doctor Cuddy.

"Not that we can see." replied Wilson. "There seems to be no cause for it."

"Well, I think we can rule out infarction in this case. The swelling isn't the same type of symptom. There's no sign of cancer or normal blood clot. DVT doesn't sound very likely either." said House.

"Maybe he's allergic reaction to the bullets?" joked Wilson.

Foreman laughed. "A soldier allergic to bullets?"

"We are all allergic to bullets." reflected House. "They usually prove fatal."

"If we don't do something soon, he's going to lose the leg" said Wilson.

"This case seems especially important to you, Wilson." noted House. "Let me guess - you had a GI Joe doll when you were young and it's leg fell off so your mother threw it away and you've never forgiven her for it."

"House, I'm being serious. We have to try and keep the leg!"

"I don't think we can keep it." replied House. "I think he might want to take it home with him. Do the ultrasound again. Look higher up, and give him some antibiotics just in case of gangrene."

Wilson stared at the ultrasound screen until his eyes hurt. Glancing down, he noticed a very thin scar on Colin's hip, and concentrated his scan in that area. There, pressing against a major artery supplying his leg, was a small piece of shrapnel. He called doctor House as once.

"Well, Colin, you might not want to part with your bullets, but we have to remove the shrapnel from your thigh." House told Colin.

"Will I be able to run again?"

"There's every chance you'll be up and about it no time." House told him.

"Then get it out."

Colin was prepped for surgery at once. Wilson pulled the shrapnel out with a pair of forceps and nearly dropped it again when he realised what it was. House also stared at the dog tag which glistened with Colin's blood. The name on it said White, James.

"That was his brother's" Maria told them later. "But how did it get in there?"

After he'd recovered, House and Wilson questioned Colin about it, who immediately burst into tears.

"We were in 'Nam together." He cried. "He was sat right next to me when"  
He took a deep breath to fight back the sobs. "...when he got his head blown off by a mortar. I searched for a day to retrieve his dog tag, but I never found it."

"It must have hit you and embedded in your thigh." said Wilson.

"Well, looks like you've been carrying a part of your brother around with you since then." said House.

With the circulation of his leg restored, Colin's health improved, but it still left the problem of the dead tissue in his thigh. House called Wilson to his office to discus treatments. As he walked in, House offered him a sandwich box. Wilson accepts it and pulls off the lid, then throws it down onto House's desk in shock. The box is full of white maggots.

"Maggots?" said Wilson. "Is this the dark ages?"

"No," replied House, "it's still a while until dusk."

Wilson followed House to Colin's room. Colin, Maria and Penny look up as they enter. House pokes a finger into his ear.

"Is he going to be alright, doctor House?" Maria asked.

House looked up. "What? Sorry, I think I've got something in my ear."

House pulled his finger out of his ear and opens his hand. There in his palm is a single maggot. Colin's daughter screamed and ran from the room.

"Maggots?" said Maria, disgusted. "Is this the dark ages?" She stood and moved toward the door to look for Penny.

"You're the second person who's said that." called House after her. "Must remember to double check my calendar."

After a lot of persuasion, Colin agrees to use the maggots to clean away the dead tissue. House spends the night watching the maggots eat the tissue in Colin's leg. Wilson comes in, obviously disgusted by the sight. House holds out a sandwich box.

"Want one?" House asks.

"No thanks." replied Wilson, expecting the same trick as last time.

"Suit yourself. The canteen don't do sandwiches like these.", pulling an odd looking sandwich from the box.

"How can you eat that?"

"Like this.", said House, putting the sandwich to his mouth. "See, nothing to it."

A few days later, Colin is well enough to go home. House passes him in the reception of the hospital. Penny thanks House by giving him a present. Looking surprised, House unwraps the present to reveal a GI Joe doll staring at him from it's box.

Wilson stood in the shadows and smiled. 


End file.
